Sustainable living and kind parenting. Oh, and vaccinating.

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Who are the non-hip hippies

The non-hip hippies

The non-hip hippies team consists of people who are interested in living a life that causes as little harm as possible to the Earth and Earthlings. Still, we are aware that since we live in the Western World, we are taking advantage of the natural resources, have quite a heavy carbon footprint and our clothes, food, means of transportation are far from environmental-friendly much of the time. A non-hip hippie does not bury his/her head in the sand though. We try and make informed choices about our way of life.

You know who we are. You have met us before. We are the guys and gals grilling veggie burgers at a barbeque. We are the ones who will meet you later, because we do not have a car and we will bike there. Or use the metro. We are the ones who know how to grow our own food, even though our city apartment does not even have a balcony. We are the ones wearing the organic cotton t-shirts and insisting that you can be warm during winter without fur, leather or wool. We are the ones who will defend a breastfeeding mother if scolded by a waitress in a cafeteria. We are the ones who know random facts about the Amazonian forest, animals in the Arctic and the rates of domestic violence. We are the ones who will support a woman’s right to abortion and a man’s right to marry his boyfriend. We are the ones who want to live in a cob house, next to river and grow their own tomatoes, but instead we are living downtown, trying to escape from 9 to 5 jobs through daydreaming. We are hopeless romantics.

As much as we are passionate about certain ideas, we feel that people should always search for new data, proof and knowledge. This is why we are constantly doing research on subjects that are dear to us. If science proves one of our beliefs on nutrition or sustainability wrong, we are ready to reconsider it. And we will surely research and write extensively about it. Keeping an open mind is not always easy but it is a challenge that inspires us and keeps us motivated.

We would love to see discussions unfolding in the comments section of our posts and we are open to ideas about new articles. Feel free to contact us! We are also accepting guest posts. Just drop us a line to discuss about it.

Alexia Martha Symvoulidou

The founder of thenonhiphippies.org is a freelance writer and designer with a background in architecture, a huge appetite for knowledge and a deep love for books. She was born in 1985 in Athens, Greece and since 2010 lives in the Netherlands with her life partner, Nikos, a rescued African pygmy hedgehog and a Holland lop rabbit. Apart from reading and writing, she enjoys designing posters, cooking vegan meals, doing yoga and trying to grow lemon trees in teacups.

Edit August 2014:

Since this website was launched. Loulou Maya, our daughter, joined the team. Born 1st of June 2014, at 22:40, at Vlietland hospital, in Schiedam. And growing with an amazing speed since then, learning more and more party tricks each day 🙂

Edit September 2017:

Another kiddo joined the team. Vera Jo was born 11th of June 2017 at home, in Hillegom, the Netherlands. With eyes full of a mix of wisdom and mischief she makes our lives fuller. In the mean time, Loulou Maya has turned into a wonderfully challenging 3-year old that keeps amazing us every day.

I was just nominated for the Liebster Award and since I really like your blog you are one of my nominees. If you want to participate please read this post http://gingerandolives.com/2014/04/09/liebster-award/ to find out about the award 🙂
If you don’t want to participate please just ignore the above!

I was so excited when I found this post but after reading “Who are the Non-Hip Hippies” I was no longer excited. This post sounds like the quintessential hip hippie. Mainstream media hippie. Feelings are not facts.
I have been vegan for over 30 years, way before it became “hip” and to me veganism represents the ultimate ethic. I am sad to read that you so passionately want to defend and support the rights of animals and gay marriage yet not the most basic right to life for the most vulnerable. Unborn sisters and brothers in the womb. I am sad that you are not inclusive in your support to all beings having the rights to live life.
I do not want animals to be killed when they do not have to be. All vegans would agree with me on this.
Indeed most people are starting to value the lives of animals and want them treated better, and that is great. The hypocrisy of many vegans is that they do not want to kill even the smallest of things, not even insects yet very few I have spoken to are pro-life. How can this be?
Speciesism is the origin of all oppression. It is when we think one species is superior to all others, thus leading to mistreatment of these other species. Even though they can feel pain as we do. Even though they clearly are full of life, just as us. Nevertheless, a little different, but nonetheless they are no less valued by the vegans.
When other humans treat the human race as better than any race of animals, vegans are soon to call them out on their speciesism. They use it all the time when people refuse to acknowledge animals and their suffering. When an animal is slaughtered, it is speciesism. When we use animals for fur, it is speciesism. And so on and so forth. Even fish and insects are given value. Most vegans would say that choosing to kill other animals is an immoral choice. A choice that cannot be defended.
However, as soon as we talk about a HUMAN life, there is a different tune. Killing a human fetus in utero is nothing to talk about and indeed to some even praiseworthy. It is a woman’s body, a woman’s choice. Choosing to kill and eat an animal is awful; choosing to kill a human fetus is a woman’s choice not to be judged by others.
A human fetus has less worth than an insect. I have even talked to vegan people who find it outrageous to compare a clump of cells to insects. Insects are apparently much more advanced beings than human fetuses. If that is not speciesism, I do not know what is.
You cannot possibly think you value all life equally if you think killing one species offspring is okay but not another’s. That is the very definition of speciesism, treating another species as if they are less worth than another is. If you were to be truly vegan you must be pro-life, anything else would be hypocrisy.
I am the one who will stay vegan and fight for the rights of ALL life. I will hope that you too will take into consideration the value and need for veganism and feminism to support the rights of the most innocent life not just animals and homosexuals and breastfeeding mothers (who decided to give birth).
Thank you.

Thank you for taking the time to write this comment. It is clear that you are very passionate about your ideas and take the time to support them. It is also clear that you have thought your stance regarding abortions long and hard and I am not here to change your mind. I can only tell you that I am pro-choice because the idea of a woman having to give birth to the child of her rapist seems totally absurd to me. Sure, the child could be given up for adoption, but will a loving family be found? Or will the child have to go through foster care and long lists and institutions? What about women that contraception failed them? There is no 100% safe contraceptive (apart from abstinence), so what are women who accidentally get pregnant supposed to do, if they do not have the resources (financial or even emotional ones) to raise a child in a safe environment? Adoption, again? This is why orphanages are full. What about fetuses that are diagnosed with serious genetic resources, that doctors believe won’t survive childbirth and if they do, they will live for a short time in excruciating pain and then die? Is life a gift then? That is the way I see it. And just to be clear, I consider that first ball of cells amazing and complex and magical. I myself have had a chemical pregnancy and even though I was just 5 weeks, it still felt like a very real loss. Therefore, I am not talking about this from a “safe space” of sorts. I hope that you will respect and consider my opinion the way I did yours and I hope that you can still enjoy some of my posts, despite the fact that we will have to agree to disagree on the pro life/pro choice front.